| Dates: May 28 – June 11 place: Roland Garros, Paris |
| coverage: Live text and radio commentary of selected matches via BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, the BBC Sport website and app |
Jack Draper’s injury woes continued as the Briton retired from his French Open first-round match with a shoulder injury.
Draper was forced to serve underarm in the middle of the first set against Argentine Thomas Martin Echeverri.
The left-hander was beaten 6-4 in the opening set and needed physical therapy on his shoulder.
The 21-year-old lost when he conceded in the first game of the second set before deciding he couldn’t continue.
Draper, ranked 55th in the world, has had a host of physical problems already in his career and this is the third consecutive Grand Slam where his performance has been affected by injury.
After retiring from his US Open third-round match against Karen Khachanov due to a hamstring problem, the men’s fourth-place finisher was also endangered by cramping in his Australian Open defeat to Rafael Nadal.
At the start of the year he was nursing a chronic hip injury – which led to trouble in New York – before hurting his stomach in Indian Wells in March and again in Monte Carlo in April.
Draper decided to do a training set at the National Tennis Center in London to build physical backup and returned to match action in Lyon last week.
Speaking to British media on Sunday, he admitted he had “no idea” how two weeks would go because he had “figured out” how to get his body right.
When he began resorting to underarm serve less than 24 hours later against Echeverry, it seemed inevitable that he wouldn’t be able to last much longer.
Somehow Draper managed to force his way through the service game to hold it at 4-4 and then threaten to break Echeverry’s serve in the next game.
But a shoulder problem was limiting his ability to serve and he fractured it again before seeking physical therapy.
After he spoke to his team and decided he was going to try to continue, Draper lasted one more game and walked off the court looking miserable.
